TED Case Studies: RHINO

CASE NUMBER: 387

CASE MNEMONIC: RHINOBLK

CASE NAME: Black Rhino and Trade

A.IDENTIFICATION
1. The issue
The rhinoceros lives on the cusp of extinction due to poaching
and a booming illegal trade in sales of its horn. Since the
1960s the rhinoceros (rhino) has been conservation's beacon of
despair. The black rhino has gone through the biggest deliberate
assault on a single species of mammal in the world's history. It
is the black, the hook-lipped beast of thick African bush, that has
suffered the biggest decline. Their extermination was the result
of large-scale destruction of habitat, especially by deforestation,
ruthless hunting, and the rise of illegal trade in rhinoceros
products. As a result, there are now about 3,000 black rhinos in
Africa, a pitiful number compared to the 65,000 to 100,000 that
roamed the continent in the 60s. Thus, all species of rhinoceroses
are threatened by extinction and urgently need all possible
protection.
2. Description
When rhinoceroses were still being hunted by bow and arrow and
with spears, their alarm system and reaction were by no means
ineffective. Rhinoceros have no difficulty seeing a moving person
from a distance of 90 to 150 ft (30 to 50 m). Once they have been
alerted to potential danger, they perceive soft noises and can
locate their sources. If the aggressive advances of a rhinoceros
cause the hunter to retreat, the animal may then charge. In
earlier times, when rhinoceros picked up a hunter■s scent, it
probably had enough time to escape, and when it was warned by the
tickbird, the hunter was in great peril. Rhinoceroses have always
been hunted to a modest extent, especially the Asian species. Like
elephants and wild pigs, they caused crop damage and were killed
for this reason. However, firearms fundamentally altered the
balance of risk. Rhinoceroses living in accessible areas were now
easy prey.
The white hunters especially have wreaked havoc among the
black rhinoceros. No less than 800 rhinoceros horns were exported
from the sultanate of Fort Archambault in the area of Lake Chad in
1927. The professional big game hunter Cannon has killed about 350
rhinoceros in less than four years. He and a butcher by the name
of Tiran ■worked■ mainly in the Cameroon, in Ubangi, and Chad. At
times they switched from ivory hunting to rhinoceros because
killing the rhinos was easier and their horns had increased in
price. These people supplied modern firearms to the natives who
eagerly participated in the shooting. The British big game hunter
John A. Hunter brags about having killed more than on thousand and
six hundred rhinoceros and more than one thousand elephants, partly
of his own volition but also by order of the government who wished
to prepare the land, for example the Wakamba, for settlements. In
1947 he killed three hundred rhinoceros there and, in the following
year, another five hundred. Later it was found that this area was
hardly suitable for settlements. The most difficult to understand
are the so-called ■sport-hunters■ who, just for the fun of it,
without any economic gain, have traveled in Africa and killed as
many of these unsuspecting animals as possible. There are reports
about a Dr. Kolb who has killed one hundred and fifty rhinoceros in
East Africa.
Grzimek suggests that it might be of special interest for
physiologist to analyze the mentality of such wholesale killers
from their letters and reports. These ■Big Game Hunters■ obviously
are an entirely different type of man from those hunters in Europe
who care for the game and spend large sums in order to preserve or
to improve the game population. Since traditionally big game
hunting in Africa has been described as something worthy of heroes,
one may presume that a personal feeling of inferiority, destructive
tendencies, and a certain addiction for fame have led to such
slaughter. However, the rhinoceros hunt especially has never been
a dangerous, heroic deed. During the many years he lived in
Africa, the English explorer Frederick Selous (1851-1917) had not
heard of a single instance where a European rhinoceros hunter had
been killed by a rhino.
Due to the belief that humans can acquire magical powers by
eating preparations of various rhinoceros body parts was -and still
is- very widespread these massive, the rhino horn became a
lucrative activity. Rhino horn has been used in Asia folk medicine
and for ceremonial dagger handles in North Yemen. Therefore, in
the twentieth century the wholesale slaughter of all five species
led to their extermination in large parts of their former ranges.
Of the five species of rhinoceros, all five are in different
degrees of danger. The black rhino's decline has merely been the
most dramatic. The African black rhinoceroses are losing their
battle with ruthless poachers armed with AK-47s, who
indiscriminately shoot them for their horns. As late as 1970,
there were an estimated 65,000 black rhinos roaming the African
continent. Since then until 1989, 95 percent have been killed in
a tide of carnage that has swept from the Sudan to Mozambique. In
Tanzania, the number of these rhinos has been reduced from almost
4000 in 1970 to fewer than 250 in 1989, in Kenya, they numbered
1500 and were down to 300 in 1989.
Most countries have been powerless to stop the destruction.
Game scouts who have tried to resist the poachers have been shot
at; a few have been killed. In Zimbabwe, for instance, the
government has taken a strong line against poachers. In 1984, the
parks department set up Operation Stronghold to defend the rhino,
a military operation that defends its wildlife with a shoot-to-kill
policy. Wardens and scouts were equipped with automatic weapons
and hand-held radios; and the penalty for poaching was increased to
five years in prison. Despite such measures, some 500 of the
animals have been killed between July 1984 to 1989. In small
enclosure near the Zambezi River, the bleached, hornless skulls are
arranged in ranks like gravestones in a military cemetery. And,
between 1981 and 1994, Zimbabwe's black rhino population declined
from 1,400 to 381.
The Luanagwa Valley, perhaps the finest national park in all
of Africa, is a southern extension of the Great Rift, where even
as recently as 1981 it was still home to 3,000 black rhinos.
However, they have all gone now. The remainders are a relict
population, estimated at 40 individuals, not so much dispersed as
terminally scattered, with a gene pool shallow as a puddle. For
all practical purposes, the black rhino is extinct in what was once
the finest place in its entire range. Even the leaders of the
conservation campaign use phrases like "spectacular failure" to
describe the country's calamitous five-year decline from Africa's
richest haven, with as many as 2,000 black rhinos, to a ravaged
population of fewer than 300 today.
There are some reasons behind this failure in preserving the
rhino population. One is attributed to the decline of Zambian
economy, with the world's highest per capita debt. It is easy to
find people ready to risk their lives for tuppence, when tuppence
is a fortune. Zambian porters on rhino hunting raids have been
paid as little as US$ 12, plus expenses. As a result, Zambian
cross the river on Zimbabwe■s northern border in dugout canoes to
hunt in the Zambezi Valley (the valley is one of the richest
wildlife areas in Southern Africa, where herds of elephant, impala
and buffalo roam by the thousands along with the endangered
rhinos.) In fact, Zambian slum dwellers and subsistence farmers,
who make less than 25 kwacha (about $1.50) a day, can make as much
as 8000 kwacha (approximately $500) for each horn brought back to
the middlemen who bankroll the operation. At such rates, there is
no shortage of volunteers. Also, the parks departments has only 80
men and five vehicles to carry out the anti-poaching operation over
5000 square miles in the Zambezi Valley. Therefore, since Zambia
destroyed its own rhino population, and with a rhino trading
structure established, it was inevitable they would turn to the
places where rhino populations still existed, forcing the
government of Zimbabwe and Namibia both to launch a counter-attack
by sawing off the horns of as many of their rhino as they could
catch. This was the policy of desperation.
Once the horn is cut, it can grow again - it is made of
keratin, like your fingernails. However, even straight after de-
horning, the residual chunk of horn is still valuable. The de-
horned rhinos get shot anyway, partly from spite, partly to avoid
the waste of time chasing the same animal in the future. In short,
despite considerable investment of time, money, manpower and
ingenuity, the protection of rhino in their range states has not
halted the decline. In fact, the situation has progressed smoothly
and without interruption from crisis to catastrophe. So the time
has come to attack the problem from the other end.
Eastern medicines create a huge demand for rhino horn.
Traditional medicine is a matter of continuing and undimmed
importance in China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Korea
and in Chinatowns across the world. But much of traditional
oriental medicine does actually work; the use of saiga antelope
horn, for example, has been proved to be genuinely effective as a
fever-reducer. Not so rhino horn. The Swiss pharmaceutical firm
Hoffmann-La Roche conducted tests and declared at the end of them
that rhino horn had no effect on the human body whatsoever, good or
bad. Chinese scientists in Hong Kong found that rhino horn did have
a cooling effect on fever induced in laboratory rats, but only when
used in massive doses. Whatever explanation one might try to find,
the final outcome is that rhinos now live on the cusp of
extinction: not because they are out of date, but because of a
rather frivolous human demand.
Although, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species (CITES) has been in place for a long time in which the
nations that are signatories to Cites agree to various prohibitions
and restrictions in trade that is harmful to the interests of
conservation, the use of rhino horn, in both the dagger-handle and
the medicine end-user countries, is no passing fad: it is the
tradition of centuries. For example, in 1993 South Korea joined
Cites to widespread triumph. There followed what has been
described as an 'unprecedented crackdown' on domestic trade in
rhino horn products. Police and government agents investigated
12,000 shops and found only one offender. Later that same year,
Traffic conducted an investigation into 149 medicine shops and
clinics in five South Korean cities. In 69 of them, they found
rhino horn products. South Korean trade volume is reckoned to be
300 kilos a year: or 100 black rhinos.
In addition, further regulatory mechanisms attempting to
control the rhino horn business has been enforced to countries that
are not a Cites signatory. This is the case of Taiwan. Although
its internal trade in rhino products has been banned in Taiwan as
far back as 1989, investigation of Taiwanese pharmacies in 1993
proved that rhino horn was found to be widely available. But the
entire picture changed with the United States intervention that
used the same procedure of the Fisherman's Protection Act of 1967,
and something called the Pelly Amendment - this is a two-stage
process under which the US can express its disapproval of nations
that act against endangered species. Stage one involves
certification: a kind of official black mark. Norway has been
certified for killing whales, and China for trade in rhino and
tiger products. Consequently, the sanction costs Taiwan US$ 25
million a year, affecting trade in all wildlife, including fish.
These sanctions remain in place. The sum involved means that the
step is to a large degree symbolic. But there is scope for
increasing these sanctions. The point is that anything affecting
trade between Taiwan and a major trading partner is a very serious
matter indeed.
Rhino horn has been promoted to a genuine issue on the agenda
on international trade. And it is getting harder to implement the
standard response of cosmetic conservation laws. For years, many
countries have established absolutely ferocious pro-conservation
laws and made no attempt whatsoever at enforcement. Agencies such
as Traffic and the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency
continue to gather facts that could embarrass any rhino-using
country - particularly if it wants to trade with the United
States. But so far, all species of rhinoceroses are threatened by
extinction and urgently need all possible protection.
3. Related Cases
USCHINA caseRHINO caseTIGER caseKENYA case
Keyword Clusters
(1) : Trade Product = Rhino Horn
(2) : Bio-geography = [LHERB]
(3) : Environmental Problem = [SPLL]
1.Draft Author: Marcela Rabi Fall, 1996
B. LEGAL Cluster
5. Discourse and Status: DISagreement and COMplete
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
(Cites) of Wild Fauna and Flora, which was signed in Washington, in
1973, officially proclaimed the black rhinoceros as an endangered
specie. The nations signatories to Cites agreed to various
prohibitions and restrictions in trade harmful to the interests of
conservation.
6. Forum and Scope: CITES and MULTIlateral
One hundred and thirty governments have signed the Convention
on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and
Flora. 7. Decision Breadth: 130 (CITES signatories)
Even though some of Cites' signatory countries had agree upon
protecting the black rhino, rhino■s horn is still used in both the
dagger-handle and the medicine end-user countries. Investigations
by Traffic have proved that in many Cites countries internal trade
in prohibited products continued without hindrance. Some African
conservationists are mounting a last-ditch effort to save the
species - trying to get the CITES international ban on rhino horn
trading lifted.
8. Legal Standing: TREATY
Different options have been explored to preserve black
rhinoceros: de-horning the animal in Namibia to discourage hunters,
shooting poachers in Zimbabwe, running privately bred rhino
reserves in South Africa, and even flying the animals to breeding
grounds in the US and Australia. However, the protection of rhinos
is now two-pronged: traditional protection in the range states
continues, but it is now allied to a prolonged assault on the
consumer states: the places where rhino horn is bought and sold and
devoured: the real killers. As we have seen, guarding the rhinos
from this demand has not saved them. And so there has been a
change in the angle of attack. Anti-poaching efforts continue: but
since the early nineties determined and growing assault has been
made on the demand itself. The political will to enforce such a
ban would be weak, and the cultural pressure to ignore it would be
very strong. A vast black market would open up; fortunes would be
made until rhinos finally became extinct. C. GEOGRAPHIC Cluster
9. Geographic locations
a. Geographic domain : AFRica
b. Geographic Site : SAFR - Southern Africa
The single species, black rhinoceros, originally occurred
throughout eastern and southern Africa, and in the north ranged as
far as northeastern Sudan and at least as far west as northeastern
Nigeria.
c. Geographic Impact : South Africa
Black Rhinoceros were never found throughout Africa. From the
time the Europeans first entered Africa, the rhinos have become
exterminated in wide areas of their habitat. In South Africa,
south of Zambesi River, only few are left in protected areas. In
Rhodesia and Malawi, too, they have become rare; they are somewhat
more numerous in Zambia, especially in the area of the Luangwa
River. The estimate for the Portuguese area of Mozambique is
approximately five hundred head; for Angola it is one hundred and
fifty; and for Southwest Africa, two hundred and eighty.
In the French colonies of Africa, two hundred, they were
nearly extinct by 1930. Only then were strict laws for their
protection introduced, saving some. The few rhinoceros in the
Southern Sudan may have disappeared in the last years due to the
civil wars going on there and the ready availability of firearms.
If it had not been for the National Parks, especially in East
Africa, and other protected areas, the black rhinoceros would
probably be extinct by now. The total number for 1967 of black
rhinoceros left were only 11,000 to 13,500, three to four thousand
of them in Tanzania.
1.Sub-National Factors: Yes
11.Type of Habitat: TROPical
Black rhinoceros inhabits the transitional zone between
grassland and forest, generally in thick thorn bush or acacia scrub
but also in more open country (Sckenkel and Schenkel-Hulliger
1969). Joubert and Eloff (1971) reported that, in Etosha National
Park in Namibia, the most important factor influencing black rhino
distribution is the presence of many natural, permanent water
holes. They are a browser and lives on a variety of bushes and
shrubs, particularly Acacia, which forms the bulk of the diet. D.
TRADE Cluster
12. Type of Measure: REGBAN
13. Direct vs. Indirect Impacts: INDirect
14. Relation of Measure to Environmental Impact
a. Direct Related : Yes Black rhinoceros
b. Indirectly Related : No
c. Not Related : No
d. Process Related : Yes Specie Loss [SPLL]
15. Trade Product Identification: rhinoceros horns
The extraordinary rhino's horn price commands the black market
-up to $1500-for use in Asian Folk medicine and for ceremonial
dagger handles in North Yemen, for instance.
16. Economic Data
Many centuries ago the powder made from these horns was sold
in East Asiatic pharmacies at a high price. Since the rhinoceros
are easy to kill, they have been poached ever since; now, after the
almost total extinction of the Asiatic species, those in Africa are
poached. Years ago, on the black market, people in Africa paid
approximately fifteen dollars for a kilogram of nose horn. The
medium-size horn of a great Indian rhinoceros literally is worth
its weight in gold, as well-informed people have confirmed. In
1965 the price for an Asiatic horn was no less than $1125 for one
kilogram. The strong faith in the healing powers of these
■remedies■ increased the prices constantly and stimulates natives
and agents to kill even the very last rhinoceros without regard for
the laws protecting the animals. Nevertheless, despite the
international ban on trade in rhino horn, it is widely available in
markets in Hong Kong and Taiwan for up to $ 900 per pound. This
astronomical price has been an incentive for the internationally-
organized poaching that has swept through Africa.
17. Impact of Measure on Trade Competitiveness: BAN
African conservationists see trade as the ultimate means to
eliminate the clandestine market and their plan is to supply horns
by farming rhinos for their horns which, they say, could grow back.
Even though, if horns become available legally, market prices going
down while rhinos bred in game ranches could bring in revenue from
tourists. Nevertheless, poaching would not stop altogether because
this matter deals with poverty. For instance, a starving man would
still do it if he could kill a rhino for US$ 100. On the other
hand, one big advantage in making the sale of horns legal it could
bring in money for better surveillance and conservation for rhinos.
That money is denied to rhino breeders at present, although there
were stocks of black and white rhino horn being held in vaults,
gathering dust. But Judy Mills, the Hong Kong-based East Asia
director of Traffic, a wildlife monitoring organization under the
World Wide Fund for Nature, doubts the viability of legalizing the
trade and farming rhinos.
Ultimately, any decision to lift the ban on rhino horn trading
would have to come from the influential members of CITES (the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species).
18. Industry Sector: [Pharmaceutical]
The horn was commonly used in the manufacture of oriental
medicines and in the production of ornamental handles for the
traditional daggers of the Middle East.
19. Exporter and Importer: MANY
Investigations by Traffic have proved that in many Cites
countries internal trade in prohibited products continued without
hindrance. For example, in 1993 South Korea joined Cites to
widespread rejoicing. There followed what has been described as an
'unprecedented crackdown' on domestic trade in rhino horn products.
Police and government agents investigated 12,000 shops and found
only one offender. Later that same year, Traffic conducted an
investigation into 149 medicine shops and clinics in five South
Korean cities. In 69 of them, they found rhino horn products.
South Korean trade volume is reckoned to be 300 kilos a year: or
100 black rhinos.
Since 1979 Hong Kong has banned imports and exports of rhino
horns and in 1989 the ban was expanded to cover the internal sale
of rhino horn and items purporting to contain it. Despite this,
the territory was identified earlier this year by the United States
as the primary exporter of rhino medicines intercepted at US ports
of entry, some of which were reported as originating from China.
Internal trade in rhino products has been banned in Taiwan
as far back as 1989. Traffic made an investigation of Taiwanese
pharmacies in 1993 (Taiwan is not a Cites signatory, because it is
not recognized as a nation state by United Nations.) Rhino horn
was found to be widely available. Other consumers are the more
affluent Taiwanese and perhaps Koreans.
Consumer states include the United Kingdom. The trade is
illegal, but it goes on. Traffic, an organization that monitors
the world's wildlife trade for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and
the World Conservation Union (IUCN) investigated the Chinatowns of
London, Liverpool and Manchester, and found evidence of much
illegal trade.
There is a second market for rhino horn, another with a long
cultural tradition behind it. In Yemen and Oman, rhino horn is used
to make the handle and sheath of the traditional dagger, or
jambiyya. Male Yemenis and Omanis have worn these rhino daggers
for centuries. In recent years, rhino trade has boomed as never
before, and this has led to a democratization of its products.
What was once the preserve of the rich and powerful is now open to
the multitude.
In Yemen and Oman, many young men have been enriched by
periods of work as ex -pats in Saudi. To return and buy your own
dagger was, and is, a huge statement of what you have achieved. In
the same way, Chinese trade across the world has enriched many;
and for these, too, rhino products have become available. Demand
has soared, and so the number of rhinoceros left in the wild
continues to fall.
E. ENVIRONMENTAL Cluster
20. Environmental Problem Type: Land Herbivore Loss
21. Name, Type, and Diversity of Spices
a.Name: Specie's Name: Black Rhinoceros or Hooked-
lipped rhinoceros Scientific Name: Diceros bicornis
Approximate Size: 10 ft.; 3.55 m
Body length: 24 in; 60 cm
Tail length: 5 ft.;1.55 m
Height: 1.5 tons
Distinguishing Features: The black rhino usually has two
horns. The anterior horn is usually longer and has an
average length of 20-32in. (50-80cm). No hair on skin.
Upper lip extends beyond lower lip and is prehensile.
Molars have low crowns.
Reproduction: Gestation period: 480 days.
Young per birth: 1 (birth interval 3 years).
Weight at birth: 110 lb.; 50 Kg.
Life Cycle: Weaning: At 18 months.
Sexual Maturity: Males at 8 years, females at 4.
Life span: 40 years.
Food Branches of bushes: creeping plants.
Enemies: Humans, lions and hyenas (only sick adults and
unprotected young animals)
Habit and Habitat: On bushy plains; group of cows and
young animals rare and small; no territorial behavior.
Occurrence: Endangered by destruction of habitat and
poaching.
The presently living rhinoceros are well defined group of
animals whose members closely resemble each other, in spite of the
fact that two of the species live on the Africa continent and three
in Asia. The African rhinoceros from a separate branch (subfamily
Dicerotinae) which includes the present-day black rhinoceros, which
originally fed on foliage, and the square-lipped rhinoceros which
is more highly evolved grass-eater. The black rhino is no more
black than the white (or squared-lipped) rhinoceros white. The
color of its skin varies according to the soil on which it lives
and the mud and dust in which it wallows. Its basic skin color is
slate gray, but when its skin is covered with soil, it can be
white, reddish, and even distinctly black (in areas with volcanic
soil).
Type : Land Herbivores [LHERB]
Compared to even-toed ungulates, there are relatively few
basic types of odd-toed ungulates, namely horses, tapirs, and
rhinoceros, and there are only a few species of each type. The
largest odd-toed ungulates are the rhinoceros. However they are
impressive not because of their size and weight, but also because
of their unique head weapons, their ability to move across rough
terrain, their amazingly fast trotting and galloping, and their
special temperament. The five species of rhinoceros differ in
regard to their weapons. As in the case of other large hoofed
animals, species that live in an open habitat (biotope) and eat
mainly (grazes) are larger than species that do not eat grasses
(browsers) and species that are specialized forest-dwellers.
Rhinos have been found at elevations of 8600 to 9300 ft (2700
to 2900 m) in the mountains of East Africa. They live in a variety
of habitats, including dense brush, open forest, open grassy
plains, and even semiarid regions. They avoid only hot, wet
regions. Therefore, they have never penetrated the virgin
rainforest of the Congo Basin or the forests of West Africa. They
were never distributed over all of Africa, but one time their range
extended to the southern tip of Angola to the West coast of Africa
and all of East Africa, including Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya,
Somalia, and parts of Ethiopia. From Ethiopia, their range
extended along a strip between the Sahara Desert and the Congo and
the virgin forest of Nigeria, as far as Lake Chad and Cameroon.
However, within its large range in central East Africa, which had
only two branches extending into the West Africa, there were many
areas in which it did not live, such as along the coast of Kenya
and Tanzania and between Zambezi and Chobe Rivers. Since the
settlement of Africa by Europeans, they have been eliminated from
large parts of their former range, such as the region south of the
Zambezi River. They had almost completely disappeared from the
French colonies in Africa by 1930. Africa's black rhino population
has declined from 65,000 in 1970 to less than 3,000 today, wildlife
officials estimate. In 1992 they were under 2,500. Today, only
2,000 black rhinos are left in all of Africa, and the number
continues to drop.
22. Impact and Effect: High and REGULatory
The international ban on the trade in rhino horn has been in
force for more than 21 years, it has probably failed to save a
single rhino.
23. Urgency and Life Time: High and about 30 years
In South Africa, the increased in number of black rhinos from
a few dozen to about 900, now the largest number in Africa, is due
to more money available for protection. Namibia and Kenya, which
invested heavily in intelligence networks to foil poachers, have
also made headway. Thanks to those countries, the black rhino's
plummet towards extinction, is thought to have leveled off at
around 2,500 today. On the other hand, Zimbabwe has not given its
parks the same priority. Environmentalists around the world are
alarmed at the disappearance of Zimbabwe's black rhinoceros.
Twenty years ago there were 40,000 black rhinos in Africa. In the
early nineties, it was estimated that there were fewer than 3,000
black rhinos on the continent, of which 2,000 were concentrated in
Zimbabwe, the world's last remaining viable breeding herd.
However, last November a count throughout Zimbabwe found only 250
black rhinoceroses left in the wild. Experts say that at the
current rate, poachers will finish off Zimbabwe's last rhino before
the end of next year. The black rhino and all the other species of
rhinoceroses are still threatened by extinction and urgently need
all possible protection.
24. Substitutes: Yes
There is a further step that is the promotion of substitutes
for rhino horn. In Yemen, they have started to make dagger handles
from agate, an idea that came from the traders themselves, not from
conservationists, though it came about because rhino horn was more
difficult to get hold of. An agate-handled dagger was adopted by
the Prime Minister, and subsequently he has used agate-handled
jambiyya as gifts for visiting dignatories.
The question of finding substitutes for rhino horn in Chinese
medicine is ore complex. But some progress is being made and there
will be a conference in Hong Kong with representatives of the
Chinese medicine trade later this year. An important fact is that
Chinese medicine has a million ingredients. It is not like being
an ivory carver; no pharmacist will go bust if he can't use rhino
horn.
The chairman of the 300-member Association of Chinese Medical
and Philosophy said at least 27 plants had similar medicinal
properties to those found in various parts of a rhino.
VI. OTHER Factors
There have been many cases related to the rhino poaching
business. The Moyo's episode was an open-and-shut case in which he
and six other Zimbabweans were found guilty of trying to sell two
rhino horns. It even took on a comic aspect when Moyo pleaded that
he had been in "a state of forgetfulness" about the illegality of
the rhino horn trade. Moreover, the cases of the deaths of
Captain Edwin Nleya and Lieutenant Shepard Chisango are much more
sinister. Nleya died in 1989 after collecting evidence of an army
poaching ring in Zimbabwe's southern Gona re-Zhou game reserve.
Nleya had warned his wife that he was being followed and that he
believed his life was in danger. An army inquiry attributed Nleya's
death by hanging to suicide but an inquest found he had been
murdered. Also, Chisango died in police custody in 1991 after
gathering evidence of Zimbabwe army poaching and smuggling in
Mozambique. Amnesty International, as well as the Article 19 human
rights pressure group, have urged the Mugabe government to
investigate the two deaths and persistent claims that top army
officials are involved in poaching and smuggling. Amnesty further
alleged that since 1987 a number of Zimbabweans had died in
mysterious circumstances when investigating rhino and elephant
poaching. Despite the international attention, or perhaps because
of it, the attorney-general closed the two cases late last year.
25. Culture: Yes
In China and elsewhere in the Far East, ground rhino horn has
been valued for centuries as a medicine to cure fevers. Portions
of the horn command dubious esteem as to enhance male sexual
potency. The Chinese, as well as other Asiatic peoples, believe
that powder rhinoceros horns make an aphrodisiac. Perhaps the
Asiatic superstition is based on the fact that the great Indian
rhinoceros do copulate for about one hour during which the bull
ejaculates approximately every three minutes. To become capable of
such sexual prowess seems to be desirable to many Asiatic people.
In Yemen, fancy dagger handles made of rhino horn symbolize
power. Skillfully carved cups of rhinoceros horn used by Indian
and Far Eastern potentates to test beverages for the possibility of
containing poison, may indicate a similar belief. Today these
rhinoceros horn cups are rare collector■s items. The possible
medicinal effect of the horn has recently been carefully tested,
however, not the slightest effect could be demonstrated.
There are still some controversial regarding the purpose in
using the horn. Historically, the largest demand for it came from
eastern Asia where it was used as a medicine akin to aspirin.
Rhino horn is used for reducing fever, calming convulsions,
stopping nose bleeds and preventing strokes. The animal's horns
are also used in medicines and to make dagger handles, while their
hide is considered a remedy for skin problems such as acne.
26. Trans-Border: Yes
The deaths in suspicious circumstances of two army officers
who were looking into top-level military involvement in rhino and
elephant poaching have led to calls from Amnesty International for
a government investigation. Zimbabwe has long blamed Zambian
poachers, backed by international rings, for the decline of its
rhino population. But the conviction of Benjamin Moyo, a member of
President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party, highlights evidence
of high-level involvement in the illegal trade in rhino horn.
1.Rights: No
28. Relevant Literature
1.Buzzworm, January, 1994, Vol. 6 ; No. 2 ; Pg. 26; ISSN:
0898-2996, 4772 words, The rhino chainsaw massacre: why wild rhinos
will not survive the century., Speart, Jessica, IAC 15203270
2.Chicago Tribune, May 12, 1993, Wednesday, EVENING UPDATE EDITION,
NEWS; Pg. 8; ZONE: C; EVENING. Reader, 1041 words, Wildlife
dwindles amid debate Habitat destruction, poaching imperil
remaining creatures of jungle, savanna, By Joy Aschenbach, National
Geographic for AP Special Features
3.Chicago Tribune, March 26, 1995 Sunday, CHICAGOLAND FINAL
EDITION, TRIBUNE BOOKS; Pg. 11; ZONE: C; Hobbies., 230 words, THE
UNITED NATIONS ISSUES ENDANGERED SPECIES STAMPS, By Dominic Sama,
Knight-Ridder/Tribune.
4.Europe Environment, March 2, 1993, No. 0405, 334 words, TRAFFIC
DENOUNCES TRADE IN PROTECTED SPECIES.
5.Foreign Policy, June 22, 1994, No. 95 ; Pg. 35; ISSN: 0015-7228,
Environmental pragmatism; environmental damage in underdeveloped
countries, Cairncross, Frances, IAC 15519526
6.Greenwire, January 20, 1993, SOCIETY AND POLITICS, 333 words,
WILDLIFE: ENVIRO GROUP GIVES CLINTON TOP 10 PRIORITIES
7.GANNETT NEWS SERVICE, February 25, 1993, Thursday, 600 words,
TAIWAN BOYCOTT LAUNCHED OVER RHINO, TIGER TRADE, KEN MILLER;
Gannett News Service, WASHINGTON
8.GANNETT NEWS SERVICE, March 15, 1993, Monday, 654 words, DEATHS
CLIMB IN ZIMBABWE'S FIGHT FOR BLACK RHINO, KEN MILLER; Gannett
News Service, WASHINGTON
9.Greenwire, September 26, 1994, WORLDVIEW, 480 words, SPECIES:
BLACK RHINO POPULATION DROPPING; IVORY BAN
10. Los Angeles Times, May 8, 1991, Wednesday, San Diego County
Edition, Metro; Part B; Page 1; Column 2; Metro Desk, 929 words,
FATE OF RHINOS TO BE TOPIC OF S.D. MEETING; CONSERVATION:
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE TO DEAL WITH TOUCHY ISSUES IN SAVING
AFRICAN AND ASIAN RHINOCEROSES FROM EXTINCTION., By LINDA ROACH
MONROE, TIMES STAFF WRITER
11. Los Angeles Times, June 20, 1993, Sunday, Bulldog Edition,
Part A; Page 22; Column 1; Advance Desk, 1044 words,
CONSERVATIONISTS TRYING RADICAL WAYS PRESERVE 'MEGASPECIES';
WILDLIFE: IN NAMIBIA, OFFICIALS TRANQUILIZE RHINOS AND SAW OFF
THEIR HORNS IN AN EFFORT TO DISCOURAGE POACHERS. TIGERS, ELEPHANTS
AND GORILLAS ALSO ARE ON THE BRINK OF EXTINCTION., By JOY
ASCHENBACH, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
12. Los Angeles Times, September 22, 1994, Thursday, Home Edition,
Part A; Page 1; Column 1; Foreign Desk, 1582 words, COLUMN ONE;
ZIMBABWE IS LOSING RHINO WAR; THE AFRICAN NATION, ONCE A
STRONGHOLD FOR THE BEAST, HAS SPENT A DECADE TRYING TO FOIL
POACHERS WHO COVET ITS HORNS. BUT EVEN THE CHIEF OF PROTECTION
CALLS HIS EFFORTS 'A SPECTACULAR FAILURE.', By BOB DROGIN, TIMES
STAFF WRITER, SINAMATELLA, Zimbabwe
13. New Scientist, February 6, 1993, Vol. 137 ; No. 1859 ; Pg. 9;
ISSN: 0262-4079, 725 words, Will US sanctions save the rhino?,
Miller, Susan Katz, IAC 13808853
14. Reuters North American Wire, October 12, 1994, Wednesday, BC
cycle, 275 words, World Wildlife Fund lists most-endangered
species, WASHINGTON
15. Reuters World Service, October 12, 1994, Wednesday, BC cycle,
263 words, World Wildlife Fund lists most-endangered species,
WASHINGTON, Oct 12
16. The Boston Globe, March 3, 1994, Thursday, City Edition,
METRO/REGION; Pg.16, 317 words, Ecological group unveils broad
plan; World lawmakers end 3 days of talks, By Bob Hohler, Globe
Staff, WASHINGTON
17. The Nation, February 15, 1993, Vol. 256 ; No. 6 ; Pg. 195;
ISSN: 0027-8378 2365 words, The trail leads to South Africa; big-
game smugglers. Galster, Steven R., IAC 13462499
18. The Reuter Library Report, September 26, 1989, Tuesday, BC
cycle, 600 words, NAMIBIANS SAY THEY ARE STEMMING ILLEGAL IVORY
TRADE, By Peter Kenny, WINDHOEK, Sept 26
19. The San Francisco Chronicle, APRIL 19, 1993, MONDAY, FINAL
EDITION, NEWS; Pg. A3, 1029 words, 7 Environmental Crusaders Win
S.F.'s Goldman Prizes, Elliot Diringer, Chronicle Staff Writer
20. The Seattle Times, December 3, 1992, Thursday, Final Edition,
SCENE; Pg. E1, 354 words, SURVIVORS -- PHOTOGRAPHER JAMES BALOG
OFFERS A VERY PERSONAL VISION OF ENDANGERED SPECIES
21. The Seattle Times, September 1, 1994, Thursday, Final Edition,
ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT; Pg. E1, 961 words, WARHOL'S PORTRAITS OF
NDANGERED, BY ROBIN UPDIKE
22. The Washington Post, June 24, 1989, Saturday, Final Edition,
FIRST SECTION; PAGE A18, 1308 words, Mexico's Other Contraband --
Wildlife; Like Drug Smuggling, Illicit Trade in Exotic Species Is
Enriching -- and Deadly, William Branigin, Washington Post Foreign
Service, MEXICO CITY, June 23, 1989, FOREIGN NEWS
23. Travel Weekly, March 15, 1993, Vol. 52 ; No. 20 ; Pg. 62;
ISSN: 0041-2082, 425 words, Zoo, Wild Animal Park, Sea World set to
debut new exhibits; related article on visitor statistics; Selling
San Diego, California, IAC 13616569
24. Travel Weekly, September 15, 1994, Vol. 53 ; No. 73 ; Pg. S19;
ISSN: 0041-2082, 1063 words, Eco-points: South Africa;
environmental tourism policies, McDonald, Michele, IAC 15841782
25. UNESCO Courier, February, 1988, Pg. 18; ISSN: 0041-5278, 1571
words, Why wildlife matters; threats to animal and plant life,
Fitter, Richard, IAC 06331742
26. USA TODAY, October 13, 1994, Thursday, FINAL EDITION, NEWS;
Pg. 3A, 935 words, EPA may enforce ban on pesticides, Paul Leavitt
27. WWD (Women's Wear Daily), June 10, 1992, Vol. 163 ; No. 113 ;
Pg. 16; ISSN: 0149-5380, 355 words, Animal Republic wildlife line
trekking into stores; Animal Republic Survival Gear; Brief Article,
Gould, Charles, IAC 12320347